Saturday 3rd November 2018 – Home to Crowne Plaza Hotel Heathrow.

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Yes, I know it’s only two weeks since we came back from Norway but we’re off again this time to warmer climes. We have, for some time, been hearing good things about Regent Seven Seas as a cruise line so when we received an offer from them for this one week cruise we thought we’d give it a whirl.

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Although we have just one week on the cruise this offer includes a one night pre-cruise stopover in Monte Carlo in a hotel right on the F1 circuit and, as we’re due to arrive nice and early we’ve decided to treat ourselves and we’ve booked for dinner at one of the restaurants inside the famous Monte Carlo Casino which should be interesting.

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There has been just one small fly in the ointment; just after I’d finished packing yesterday we had a call from our tour operator advising that as a result of some dreadful storms the port of Monte Carlo has been closed. We had visions of having a major change to our itinerary and having to cancel our booking at the Casino but it seems that we are staying in the same hotel but leaving earlier on Monday morning so that we can be bussed to Marseille which is the nearest port which can accommodate the ship. It does mean we have to go West to go East but it doesn’t seem it will make too much difference.

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As this is only a week long trip with short flights (no jet lag) we decided to drive ourselves down to Heathrow rather than use our usual car service and as our compressor gadget had decided to play up we knew we needed to stop to put some air in the tyres on the way. With this in mind we left just before 13:00 hoping/expecting to arrive at the hotel in daylight but, as the saying goes best laid plans and all that……

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We had stopped to top up the tyres and headed out on the A46 when everything suddenly came to a stop as there had been what appeared to be a very serious accident between the Skellingthorpe and Doddington roundabouts. As there was really only one way to go (in towards the city) we joined the ever lengthening queue of traffic trying to get to where we needed to be; we eventually got back on our way but not before we’d spent an hour fiddle faddling our way around the back roads.  We finally reached the Newark junction a full 2 hours after we’d left home instead of the 30 to 40 minutes it should have taken. The journey from there was somewhat easier and we finally reached the hotel after a journey of almost 5 hours !

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The hotel itself was okay but our day continued to be a bit of a bind when shortly before dinner I left Graham in the foyer looking at menus whilst I went back to room to drop of some  bits I’d collected from the car that was when I discovered that the door to our room wouldn’t lock.  I rang guest services and they sent a maintenance man along to fix it, they also got a message to Graham to explain where I was.

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Once we’d eaten at the in-house Indian restaurant (okay but not great) I again went back only to discover that the door lock had given up again. Another visit from said maintenance man ended with a lock which was, for the time being, working and a promise that he would be back in around 15 minutes with some bits to put it right properly. 45 minutes later we gave up waiting, put the deadlock on and told them not to disturb us until morning as we had to be up early. I have to say we were both glad to get to the end of this particular day.

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Sunday 4th November 2018 – Heathrow to Fairmont Hotel, Monte Carlo.

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We had set our alarm for 05:00 this morning as we had a taxi booked for 06:15. Unfortunately neither of us slept well (hard mattress, hard pillows, small bed) so we were awake at 04:35 and decided to get up then. We were picked up on time and arrived at T5 very quickly to discover that they have made some changes to the system for assistance on board (not before time). There is now a separate check-in area for handicapped people and a service desk right next door which has to be a step in the right direction. Unfortunately the staff working on that desk still seemed to have no sense of urgency so I blagged a wheelchair off of them and pushed Graham through myself albeit following a member of their team who was pushing another chair through.

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After the usually fun and games at security we found a spot to sit and have a snack before boarding. The flight was uneventful if a little bumpy on landing and we were met by representatives (lots of them) from Regent Seven Seas.  All seemed well until we started to hear our name being called over the tannoy, that was when we found out that one of our checked bags had been left behind in London !!  Thankfully there was another flight due to arrive a couple of hours later and we were assured our bag would be on it, we were a little dubious but it did, in fact arrive safe and sound and was at the hotel by around 15:00.

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Once we’d checked in we went to try to find some lunch but it seems there are no snacks available in the hotel only full blown meals (at around 45 Euros per person) so instead we took a walk to the famous Café du Paris in Casino Square.  We had read somewhere that the Casino was an easy walk from our hotel and it turned out to be true.  There are in fact two routes one which involves around 77 steps and another which involves a trip up to the top floor of the hotel in the lift and then a very short walk to the square – guess which one we took!

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It also turns out that the information we’d had telling us that the hotel was on the F1 circuit was very true, the entrance is actually right on the famous hairpin and the equally famous tunnel runs underneath not only the hotel but also our room!

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After a very pleasant lunch we had a short stroll to take in some of the views of Monaco before returning to the hotel to check on our baggage. Once we’d confirmed all was present and correct I headed back out on my own to take a few pictures and to buy some decent coffee to take back.

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We’re now resting up a little before getting ourselves ready to walk back to the Casino and our table reservation at Le Salon Rose inside the Casino.

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Monday 5th November 2018 – Monte Carlo to Marseilles.

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If anyone were to ask I would say that visiting the Monte Carlo Casino was definitely worth it for the experience but not necessarily for the food; the menu was disappointing with limited choices (including burgers!) and the quality of the food wasn’t what we expected. As I said though, it was definitely worth the visit particularly as during the renovations that are underway in some of the public areas the main gaming hall was open for us to visit and have cocktails and, yes, we did each have a Martini, shaken not stirred!

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This morning didn’t start too well for us, neither of us had slept particularly well and Graham decided to use the shower that was over the bath tub which turned out to be a bad idea as, after hearing something of a commotion and quite a lot of swearing, I went in to the bathroom to discover that he hadn’t just slipped in the bath but had actually fallen completely out of it and was sitting on the floor.  Thankfully nothing was damaged except for the shower curtain which thankfully broke his fall and ended up in a heap on the floor (we managed to get it back up later).

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Once we’d got ourselves over that little escapade we had breakfast and were ready, as requested, by 09:30. As our main bags which had been collected early that morning were still waiting to be loaded on to the bus I added the bag we had used overnight to the pile before boarding for our 3 hour drive to Marseilles. The journey was pleasantly uneventful and we arrived at the dock to find that our bags hadn’t in fact been put on our bus but were “following on”. Thankfully they did all arrive but we didn’t get our main luggage until gone 18:00 which was a real pain in the backside as it meant we had a major rush to get unpacked and, in doing so, missed a meeting with the Wine expert who is on board – oh well!

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When we went along to the main restaurant this evening we said we were happy to share and were escorted to a table to join two very pleasant ladies from California, Sherrie and Randa. The conversation certainly flowed and, as a result, we completely missed the Captain’s welcome meeting in the theatre – oops!

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Tuesday 6th November 2018 – Marseilles to Livorno.

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After a more leisurely start this morning we had a very pleasant served breakfast (very civilised) and we’re currently sitting in our suite watching as we dock at the port of Livorno where the ship will be staying until 21:00. The town is apparently very close by so we may take a short walk before coming back ready to take our organised sightseeing/wine tasting tour this afternoon.

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As it had turned out be a nice dry, partly sunny morning we left the ship after breakfast and took the free shuttle in to Livorno and took a fairly brief look around what turned out to be a very pleasant little city. Once back on board we sat outside on the pool deck in the sunshine and we had a light lunch before joining out chosen tour.

Although Livorno is the nearest city to both Florence and Pisa most of the tours which visited the cities were walking tours which simply weren’t suitable for us so we had chosen to take a sightseeing tour of the small walled city of Lucca (very pretty and very old) followed by a wine tasting at one of the local wineries. The wines were very nice but, as far as we were concerned, nothing to write home about so despite the fact they shipped within Europe we resisted.

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With the tour over we returned to the ship with just enough time to get ourselves ready for dinner in the “Prime 7” restaurant, which is one of the two specialty restaurants on board. This one is a steak and seafood restaurant and the food was superb but there was, unfortunately, little in the way of ambience.

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Shortly after dinner we made our way along to the show lounge to see what the entertainments team had to offer. Tonight’s show was entitled “Broadway” and the five singers from the team sang a range of songs from a variety of shows most of which I’d never heard of!  If I’m being honest it didn’t particularly impress as there seemed to be a distinct lack of range amongst the combined voices. Having said this I suspect we’ve been a little spoiled in the past when treated to shows by classically trained singers/musicians as well as entertainers who have been flown in specially to perform one or two shows during a cruise. There is another show tonight which includes the team of dancers so we may go along and see what this has to offer. 

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Wednesday 7th November 2018 – Livorno to Civitavechia for Rome.

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As we had an early tour book this morning we arranged to have breakfast in our suite which was just as well as we still didn’t have a great deal of time to spare. We were off of the ship and on the bus by 08:15 and heading for Rome shortly afterwards.

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This tour was advertised as being suitable for most passengers with little walking involved. This was mostly true as the first 1 ½ hours was spent getting to Rome, the next 1 ½ hours was spent taking a sightseeing tour without getting off of the bus. The only part of the tour which was a little difficult for us was the 1 ½ hours of free time they gave us as the bus was parked a little way away from the “People’s Square” and the walk to get there was over uneven ground and amongst crowds of other bus passengers many of whom had left either their brains, their manners of both at home !  We chose not to stay with the tour guide who was taking a group to the Spanish Steps, instead we took a walk around the square and, as we weren’t due back to the ship in time for lunch , we had a snack in a small back street restaurant (a small calzone , small chips and a drink for 6.50 Euros – not bad). Once back on the bus we were taken across the Tiber River to see the outside of St Peter’s Basilica before making the 1 ½ hour drive back.

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Once back on board we took ourselves off to the Horizon Lounge where afternoon tea is due to be served at 16:00 so we may partake, we’ll see!

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Thursday 8th November 2018 – Rome to Naples.

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We did have afternoon tea yesterday and although it was pleasant enough the service was not what we had expected. When afternoon tea has been on offer on other cruise lines we have been supplied with real tea which is made for you and served to you, this time we were provided with a pot of water and a very ordinary tea bag.  The food was also nice enough but again it didn’t have the same sense of occasion as it was a buffet with limited choice rather than, as we have been used to, having your own selection of sandwiches, cakes, scones etc. delivered to you on a cake stand.

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In the restaurant this evening we joined a table of six, including two who live only around 10 miles from us (it’s a small world once again) and spent a very pleasant evening chatting about nothing in particular which suited us fine. After dinner we went along to the show lounge to see what we thought of their song and dance extravaganza and the answer was not a lot so we headed back to our cabin to catch up on some sleep.

                                               

This morning dawned beautifully sunny and warm. As we had an early tour we started off with another in-suite breakfast and were on our way by 08:45, the only snag with this particular tour having an early start was that it was a wine tasting ! When we first arrived at the Mastroberardino winery we were given a tour by a very knowledgeable young lady who, rather than concentrating on the method of production, told us something of the history of the winery and the characteristics of their grapes/wines. We then moved on to the tasting room (by this time it was all of 10:30) where we were provided with tasters of five of their wines, three whites and two reds. All of them were very nice but there were two we particularly liked and we had decided to buy a six bottle case to have shipped home, however, we were thwarted in our attempt as there is some form of agreement with the UK distributor which does not allow them to ship to the UK so we, regrettably, left empty handed.

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Once back on board we had lunch at the pool side and then found ourselves some very comfy sunbeds where we whiled away a few hours before it started to get dark. After a bit of a rest and then a wash and brush up it was back to the restaurant for yet more food.

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Friday 9th November 2018 – At Sea.

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Last night we returned to the main restaurant, Compass Rose and we were joined by a very nice older couple from South Lincolnshire and another couple from an island just off of the coast of Florida. The conversation flowed very well and we were still at our table around 30 minutes after the evening’s entertainment had started so, once again we missed it, oh well !

We were up a little later this morning as we had nowhere we needed to be in a hurry and it seemed we were not the only one’s taking advantage of the later start, the restaurant was almost empty. After a breakfast which turned out to be rather too leisurely (the service really wasn’t good this morning and certainly not we would expect from a “luxu

ry” cruise line) we went up to check out the top deck to see if was warm enough to sit out and, as it was, we made ourselves comfy and whiled away another few hours doing nothing very much.

This evening we have a reservation at the other specialty restaurant. This is supposed to be a French style restaurant so that should be interesting; I’ll let you know ……

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Saturday 10th November 2018 – Marseilles.

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Last night’s meal was very nice but, once again we felt the service was a little lacking in so much as we felt that we were being hurried through the various courses of our meal – very un-French.  We were joined for the evening by a couple from New Hampshire who we hadn’t spoken to before so, once again the conversation flowed and it was quite late by the time we finished eating. We made a very short visit to the observation lounge but realised there was more than 30 minutes before the pianist was due to start so gave up and had an early(ish) night.

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The ship had already docked in Marseilles by the time we got up this morning and the sky was looking rather threatening (we had sat and watched a fairly impressive thunderstorm yesterday afternoon/evening).  As we had yet another early tour booked we had a room service breakfast and were aboard our bus by just after 08:00.

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This tour took us to the small city of Aix-en-Provence where we spent the first hour on a walking tour during which I had to ask the guide to slow down, not just for Graham but for a few people who couldn’t keep up. In all the walking tour lasted around an hour (with stops) and then finished up at a fromagerie where we were booked in for a paired cheese and wine tasting and very pleasant it was too. Next we had some free time to walk around the centre which was almost filled with market stalls. It seems that there is always a market in the centre but that on a Saturday it expands to fill the city; there were stalls of all shapes and sizes in every direction selling all manner of products so it was an interesting visit. We finished off our free time sitting outside a café with a cappuccino listening to an accordion player; very typically French and very nice.

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Once back on the ship we had another not so light lunch before finding somewhere comfortable to sit for the afternoon as we had already decided trying to walk around Marseilles would definitely be too much for us after this morning’s walking.

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Sunday 11th November 2018 – Marseilles to Palma de Mallorca.

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When we first booked this trip it hadn’t dawned on us that we would be away for the Armistice Centenary commemorations so we were pleased to find that a non-religious memorial service had been arranged for this morning.  It was pretty well attended particularly bearing in mind there were large numbers of Asian passengers on board who had no real interest in the event.

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The remainder of this morning was spent starting on our packing as our main luggage has to be outside of our suite by 22:00 tonight. Lunch was again taken whilst sitting out by the pool before we left for an afternoon excursion.

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The trip we had chosen took us on a visit to the very pretty hillside town of Valldemossa where we had a brief walking tour before having some free time to look around on our own and to visit the official Pearl factory/shop. Whilst we were en-route to the town we were each issued a raffle ticket and told that one ticket would be pulled on our return journey with the prize being something from the pearl factory and I was lucky enough to win a very, very nice string of pearls. They will go very nicely with the pendant and earrings I had already bought! After a brief visit to the town of Palma we returned to the ship for our last night on board.

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Our last evening meal on board was taken in the Compass Rose and we were joined by a very pleasant couple from Australia.  As there was no live show to go to this evening (not that we had been to many anyway) we went along to one of the lounges where the resident trio were due to start playing (and very good they were too). We were joined by a couple, Bev & John, who we had met briefly before during the cruise and we had a really nice evening listening to the music and chatting about all manner of subjects.

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Monday 12th November 2018 – Palma de Mallorca to Barcelona and Home.

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The ship had already docked when we got up this morning and, as we needed to be ready early, we had arranged to have breakfast in our suite before vacating at 07:45. As we had an included transfer we met, as instructed, in the theatre to await our turn to disembark.  The system worked pretty well and we were at the airport in fairly good time.

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Now, I never thought I would be saying this but we’ve now found another airport where the handicapped ‘service’ is a bad as that at Heathrow. We were told we couldn’t request a wheelchair until we’d checked in which meant Graham had no option but to stand in the queue with everyone else and standing for 40 minutes certainly took its toll on his ankle. We were then met by a lady with a wheelchair and she seemed to be almost as handicapped as Graham was so the push through security was painfully slow. Graham then had to swap wheelchairs and wait again for someone else to push him through Passport control. Next came yet another wait for an electric buggy which was supposed to take us to our gate. As there was limited room I started out by walking expecting to meet Graham at the gate but the service was so slow that I caught them up after they’d dropped someone off so I climbed on board.

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Once at the gate we were left without a wheelchair but as they assured us it was a very short walk and that no one else would be allowed to board until the wheelchair users had we agreed that Graham would walk on board.

The flight itself was not the most comfortable but we at least got the seats we had paid for. Bev and John who we’d spent the previous evening with had arrived to be told they were going to be bumped off of the flight unless they were prepared to pay extra for an upgrade something which I feel is absolutely unacceptable particularly as there were lots of empty seats in what they called  ‘Business class’.  The Business Class seating was exactly the same as Cattle class but they had left an empty seat in the middle of each row of three, whoopie; it certainly didn’t seem worth the extra £190 Bev & John (and apparently three other couples) had paid.

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Once back at Heathrow we had the usual fiasco with Graham being pushed from pillar to post, quite literally before I took a wheelchair and pushed him through myself. Ours was the last luggage left on the carousel but at least it was there! We then walked across and got in a taxi for the journey back to collect our car from the Crowne Plaza.

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The journey home from Heathrow wasn’t great but could definitely have been worse and we arrived home (having collected some food on the way) by 18:30, now all we have to do is get ourselves ready for our trip to Denmark on Saturday!

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